The competition sponsored by Western Digital (WD) Thailand, the
National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), and the
Thai Robotics Society (TRS), brought together 21 teams of engineering
students from universities and colleges across Thailand. The
undergraduates were challenged to build autonomous machines that could
perform technical tasks of their own, against the clock, and for the
review of professional judges.
"Team C2R" from Kasetsart University, Kampangsaen Campus came second,
while the third prize was bagged by "Bangrachan Team" from Sing Buri
Technical College. The best design award went to "The Limited" from
Dhurakij Pundit University.
"We are extremely happy winning the event and it is the culmination of
a lot of hard work. For two months we have been practicing our design
starting at four a.m. every morning," members of "High Speed Team"
remarked after winning the competition.
iNexus is an end-to-end competition which involves creating a concept
design of a system of robots programmed to perform according to the
rules of the game. It includes creating a manual and an automated
machine, both of which have to cooperate and collaborate. The trick is
to bring back randomly placed blocks parked on a grid pattern. The
manual robot assists the autonomous robot(s) to cross the initial
hurdles and place it on the grid. Subsequently, the autonomous robot
must detect, locate and pick up the randomly placed blocks and bring
them to the manual robot which stores the blocks. After collecting all
the blocks, the robots return back to the starting position.
The winners will now travel to India to compete at Techfest being
organized by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay from 7-9
January 2011. The winning teams also received cash prizes as follows:
1st Prize – 50,000 Bht.; 2nd Prize – 25,000 Bht.; 3rd Prize – 15,000
Bht.; and Best Design – 10,000 Bht.
Apart from AIT, iNexus was also held at the University of Moratuwa,
Sri Lanka and Curtin University, Australia. The top three teams from
each country’s iNexus competition now move on to compete in the World
Challenge to be held at Techfest, IIT Bombay.
Teams competing at iNexus 2010 represented the following Thai
universities: Angthong Technical College; Dhurakij Pundit University;
Eastern Asia University; Kasetsart University; King Mongkut's Institute
of Technology Ladkrabang; King Mongkut’s University of Technology North
Bangkok; King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi; Phranakhon
Sri Ayutthaya Technical College; Rajamangala University of Technology
Isan Nakhon Ratchasima Campus; Sing Buri Technical College; Sripatum
University; and Ubon Ratchathani University.